That time I set the pot on fire

We had a pub crawl yesterday, and as a result I was severely hungover today. Watching a Jersey Shore marathon and consuming variations on the theme of "bread and cheese" for meals were the order of the day.  At least the weather was cooperating: drizzling mist alternated with purple rain clouds and outright downpours all afternoon.

So when I decided dinner was going to be sweet cheese wontons washed down with OJ leftover from yesterday's festivities, I got to work. The first thing I did was make the filling: one ounce each of goat cheese and neufchâtel, blended with a couple teaspoons of honey. Next, I got out the tiny pot I use for frying things, namely because it cuts down on oil waste and nutrition guilt. I put it on medium heat and started filling wontons.

I had filled about eight wontons when I realized I could hear the heat in the oil. Thinking I just needed to turn down the heat, I turned around to see the oil smoking profusely.  I turned down the heat and dug frantically through the "clean" side of the kitchen sink for the lid, then remembered it was still in the
cabinet. When I turned around, this was what I saw:

FIRE!!!
For obvious safety reasons, I opted for an illustration rather than a photograph of this moment.

There were FLAMES coming out of the pot.  I dropped the lid on as fast as I could and moved it to a cold burner.  The kitchen and the living room were both hazy with smoke now, so I opened up the windows and set up my bedroom fan to circulate the air (alarmingly, the fire alarm did not go off, even though it will sometimes rebel at baking cookies or sauteed onions).

A little taken aback but unsure of what else to do, I went back to filling wontons until I had used up the cheese mixture, about a dozen of them total.  I greased a baking sheet, spaced the wontons out on it, then brushed the tops with a little oil.  Fifteen minutes at 375F and they were done.

The wontons were probably too rich for dinner, and the cheese oozed out the sides, but they were delicious.  Also, my apartment smelled for several hours and still isn't completely cleared of burnt oil-aroma.

At least I didn't burn down the apartment, though!

~Lindsey